Post-Snowden Statement, the real question now is, "Have Republicans been spying on Democrats?"

[Coyotl]

Statement by Edward Snowden to human rights groups at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport
http://wikileaks.org/Statement-by-Edward-Snowden-to.html
Friday July 12, 15:00 UTC

Hello. My name is Ed Snowden. A little over one month ago, I had family, a home in paradise, and I lived in great comfort. I also had the capability without any warrant to search for, seize, and read your communications. Anyone’s communications at any time. That is the power to change people’s fates. ....

What this speaks of, of course, it an abhorrent capability of key individuals to abuse their power. Who are the individuals in these key positions. Bush Junta hires, of course, likely in the Gonzales politically-filtered sense. The issue of abusive political spying has been raised before on DU, but now it will be addressed anew. Check out the many links in this thread for background:

L. Coyote May-19-07
Campaign 2004: Were Bush / Cheney / NSA illegal wiretaps spying on Dems?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x925247

Investigating more on this fresh revelation--Bush illegally spied on Americans when his own AG and Acting AG told him it is illegal--leads to some interesting questions. In particular, were they spying on political figures, candidates, and activists. Most succinctly, "Were they spying on the opposition in the 2004 Presidential election?" ...........

How much of recent political history, a red shift defying polls and public opinions, can be explained by spying? That question should be number one in the minds of those watching the Snowden situation unfurl. It should also be on the minds of President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, along with the leaders of the Democratic Party in Congress.

Surely Mr. Snowden has some huge surprises for the world once he is settled into a well-protected asylum setting. No doubt, this story has barely begun given today's revelation:

"... I also had the capability without any warrant to search for, seize, and read your communications. Anyone’s communications at any time. ..." Edward Snowden, July 12, 2013.

[Autumn]

1. Does a bear shit in the woods?

It's a fact. REC

[Coyotl]

2. Is the Pope a Catholic?

Is Sarah Palin a quitter?

[Autumn]

4. I hold these truths to be self evident

1. republican have used this to spy on Democrats, a young man named Barack Obama comes to mind.

2. Bears DO shit in the woods.

3. The Pope IS a Catholic.

4. Sarah Palin IS a quitter.

And this fucking program is a violation of our 4th amendment rights.

[CincyDem]

5. But more importantly...

...does the Pope shit in the woods ?

[Autumn]

6. Damn, I don't know for sure. Mayhap he has gone camping?

In which case he would shit in the woods and that indeed would be another fact, The Pope HAS shit in the woods. That would require proof that he has indeed gone camping.

[CincyDem]

7. I don't know why we're arguing about this...

...if, in fact, the Pope HAS shat in the woods, Snowden and the NSA know. Let's just wait for that installment to come out.

[Cleita]

3. No sh!t Sherlock.

Just the fact that they can destroy many of our good people cause they seemed to have gotten information on their peccadilloes would seem to point to the fact that they were spying on them.

[Coyotl]

8. Remember Hacker-Gate? = Republicans stole thousands of Congressional Democratic documents.

Feb. 2004. Hacker-Gate, "Republicans stole thousands of Democratic documents.."

This alone is way worse than Watergate. In this case the criminals actually pulled off a
their "listening" program, instead of getting caught trying to bug the Dems. And, in retrospect
from several years later, the Department of Justice or the GOP Congressional leadership did NADA!!
So, do we have the proverbial crime of the cover-up to consider too?

=======================================
Dems: Stolen memo case should go to DOJ
by kos - Feb 10, 2004 - http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/02/10/15168/-Dems-Stolen-memo-case-should-go-to-DOJ

.... Senate Dems are now demanding a criminal investigation from the Department of Justice
after Republicans stole thousands of Democratic documents from a shared Justice committee server.

From the registration only Roll Call:

Key Senate Democrats predicted Monday that the internal investigation into the
Judiciary Committee's leaked memos would be turned into a full-blown criminal investigation.

Exiting a 90-minute briefing about the probe with Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Bill Pickle, a
quartet of senior Judiciary Democrats declared that what they had heard led them to believe
a criminal inquiry, most likely with the Justice Department handling it, should occur.

"Eventually, this has to be looked at as a criminal matter," said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.)...

Leahy sat in on the Senators-only briefing with Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Dianne Feinstein
(D-Calif.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), all of whom declined to speak of the details of where Pickle
stands in his three-month investigation ......

Republicans, in defending the theft, refer to the matter as a "technical glitch" and deny that the stolen memos amount to criminal wrongdoing .....

[Cleita]

10. Yeah, I do. They are shameless. n/t

[Coyotl]

12. Shameless enough to try to hang their crimes on Obama, to be sure.

We have to be vigilant and not allow the NSA issue to fall into some sort of memory hole where it is forgotten that this is a Bush/Republican issue and warrantless spying was a Bush crime.

[Coyotl]

9. Deja DU: Federal Court Strikes Down NSA Warrantless Surveillance Program (8/17/2006)

Remember this? From http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x899312

Federal Court Strikes Down NSA Warrantless Surveillance Program (8/17/2006)
http://www.aclu.org/national-security/federal-court-strikes-down-nsa-warrantless-surveillance-program

DETROIT -- In an American Civil Liberties Union case, a federal court today ruled that the Bush administration’s program to monitor the phone calls and e-mails of Americans without warrants is unconstitutional and must be stopped. This is the first ruling by a federal court to strike down the controversial National Security Agency surveillance program.

"Today’s ruling is a landmark victory against the abuse of power that has become the hallmark of the Bush administration," said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. "Government spying on innocent Americans without any kind of warrant and without Congressional approval runs counter to the very foundations of our democracy. Now Congress needs to do its job and stop the president from violating the law." ..........

[malaise]

11. Does the sun rise in the East? n/t

[Octafish]

13. Outstanding post, Coyotl! Remember: GOP broke into DEM Senate computers.

Infiltration of files seen as extensive

Senate panel's GOP staff pried on Democrats

By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff | January 22, 2004

WASHINGTON -- Republican staff members of the US Senate Judiciary Commitee infiltrated opposition computer files for a year, monitoring secret strategy memos and periodically passing on copies to the media, Senate officials told The Globe.

From the spring of 2002 until at least April 2003, members of the GOP committee staff exploited a computer glitch that allowed them to access restricted Democratic communications without a password. Trolling through hundreds of memos, they were able to read talking points and accounts of private meetings discussing which judicial nominees Democrats would fight -- and with what tactics.

The office of Senate Sergeant-at-Arms William Pickle has already launched an investigation into how excerpts from 15 Democratic memos showed up in the pages of the conservative-leaning newspapers and were posted to a website last November.

With the help of forensic computer experts from General Dynamics and the US Secret Service, his office has interviewed about 120 people to date and seized more than half a dozen computers -- including four Judiciary servers, one server from the office of Senate majority leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, and several desktop hard drives.

CONTINUED...

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/01/22/infiltration_of_files_seen_as_extensive/?page=full

Gee. I don't recall anyone going to jail for that hack.

Speaking of avoiding jail: Smirko did just what anyone who's the son of a former CIA head-pretzel-veep for zombie Reagan would do. He'd use the state's powers to spy on the opposition until caught.

[Coyotl]

15. That's the caught red-handed moment that should tell us all the truth of their actions

and tactics. I think Snowden may blow the lid off their house of cards.

Just maybe, they will have to arrest Bush and Cheney after all!

[Octafish]

17. Wow! If NSA tapes top officials, they probably taped pre-9/11 warnings!

Not much chatter on the subject in my memory. I'm going to the GOOGLE.

You've opened most important lines of inquiry, Coyotl. If NSA was snooping on the top brass, etc, it surely would know what Bush knew re bin Laden determined to strike in United States.

Certainly helps clear up this one:

New NSA docs contradict Bush Administration 9-11 claims

...and Ohio can become crystal clear...

Did the NSA help Bush hack the vote?

...all we need to know and end this top secret MIComplex is good for you nonsense is democratic government. You know, justice.

[Coyotl]

18. My concern is Republican spying, not NSA. In other words, Abuse of Power by insiders.

There is no NSA in a sense, only human beings in jobs. Do we trust those humans to do their jobs and not abuse the powers they have? HELL NO! Not when those humans are a bunch of Bush hires filtered for political loyalty to the Republican agenda.

It doesn't take much imagination to figure out who would be placed in the positions enabling political spying with impunity!

[Octafish]

19. Go to the roots of the national security state, when CIA and NSA were founded...

...That was 1947 and they were Wall Street Republican insiders and they welcomed their own kind into the spy busines. Here's a relevant passage on Capitalism's Invisible Army:

The Origins of the Overclass

by Steve Kangas

EXCERPT...

The Business Origins of CIA Crimes

Although many people think that the CIA’s primary mission during the Cold War was to "deter communism," Noam Chomksy correctly points out that its real mission was "deterring democracy." From corrupting elections to overthrowing democratic governments, from assassinating elected leaders to installing murderous dictators, the CIA has virtually always replaced democracy with dictatorship. It didn’t help that the CIA was run by businessmen, whose hostility towards democracy is legendary. The reason they overthrew so many democracies is because the people usually voted for policies that multi-national corporations didn't like: land reform, strong labor unions, nationalization of their industries, and greater regulation protecting workers, consumers and the environment.

So the CIA’s greatest "successes" were usually more pro-corporate than anti-communist. Citing a communist threat, the CIA helped overthrow the democratically elected Mohammed Mussadegh government in Iran in 1953. But there was no communist threat — the Soviets stood back and watched the coup from afar. What really happened was that Mussadegh threatened to nationalize British and American oil companies in Iran. Consequently, the CIA and MI6 toppled Mussadegh and replaced him with a puppet government, headed by the Shah of Iran and his murderous secret police, SAVAK. The reason why the Ayatollah Khomeini and his revolutionaries took 52 Americans hostage in Tehran in 1979 was because the CIA had helped SAVAK torture and murder their people.

Another "success" was the CIA’s overthrow of the democratically elected government of Jacabo Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954. Again, there was no communist threat. The real threat was to Guatemala’s United Fruit Company, a Rockefeller-owned firm whose stockholders included CIA Director Allen Dulles. Arbenz threatened to nationalize the company, albeit with generous compensation. In response, the CIA initiated a coup that overthrew Arbenz and installed the murderous dictator Castillo Armas. For four decades, CIA-backed dicatators would torture and murder hundreds of thousands of leftists, union members and others who would fight for a more equitable distribution of the country’s resources.

Another "success" story was Chile. In 1973, the country’s democratically elected leader, Salvadore Allende, nationalized foreign-owned interests, like Chile’s lucrative copper mines and telephone system. International Telephone & Telegraph (ITT) offered the CIA $1 million to overthrow Allende — which the CIA allegedly refused — but paid $350,000 to his political opponents. The CIA responded with a coup that murdered Allende and replaced him with a brutal tyrant, General Augusto Pinochet. Pinochet tortured and murdered thousands of leftists, union members and political opponents as economists trained at the University of Chicago under Milton Friedman installed a "free market" economy. Since then, income inequality has soared higher in Chile than anywhere else in Latin America.

Even when the communist threat was real, the CIA first and foremost took care of the elite. In testimony before Congress in the early 50s, it artificially inflated Soviet military capabilities. A notorious example was the "bomber gap" that later turned out to be grossly exaggerated. Another was "Team B," a group of hawkish CIA analysts who seriously distorted Soviet military data. These scare tactics worked. Congress awarded giant defense contracts to the U.S. military-industrial complex.

CONTINUED...

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-overclass.html

The top secret national security state benefits the 1-percent for a reason, United Fruit, Allen Dulles and their GOP chums and co-conspirators made it that way.

[RainDog]

14. k&r n/t

[Coyotl]

16. South American Bloc Slams US Over Spying, Snowden Standoff

http://en.ria.ru/world/20130713/182214098/South-American-Bloc-Slams-US-Over-Spying-Snowden-Standoff.html

MONTEVIDEO, July 13 (RIA Novosti) – Members of South American trading bloc Mercosur have harshly criticized the United States for alleged spying in the region and defended their authority to grant the right of asylum.

Mercosur leaders, who gathered for a summit in the capital of Uruguay, Montevideo, on Friday, described the US espionage actions as “unacceptable behavior” that breaches the sovereignty of their nations and “harms relations between nations.”

Leading Brazilian daily, O Globo, reported on Tuesday that the US National Security Agency (NSA) conducted electronic espionage in several Latin American nations, including Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil and Mexico. The newspaper cited documents leaked by fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

"We emphatically reject the interception of telecommunications and espionage actions in our nations, as they constitute a violation of human rights, of the right of our citizens to privacy and information," Mercosur presidents said in a joint statement after the summit.

[kenny blankenship]

20. I have assumed - since the mid 1990s -that Republicans spy on Democrats

For one thing, they have a RECORD of using espionage and surveillance as tools of politics. Torpedoing the Paris peace talks in 1968, Watergate in 1972, stealing Jimmy Carter's debate "briefing book" in 1980 - to say nothing of the ChoicePoint shenanigans of Florida 2000.

Sometimes over the course of the next couple of decades there seemed almost to be no other plausible explanation for how weak the Democrats were. Possibly some in leadership were compromised - being blackmailed. Probably -and more likely- the Democrats' communications were being collected to anticipate and neutralize any strategy for resistance to the Republican steamroller.

But I don't mean that I thought the 'Pukes used the NSA - or other government agency. Rather they were probably benefiting from an alliance of E. Howard Hunt types, in and out of the federal agencies, coming together with the some "concerned citizens" inside the corporations that provide the government with its surveillance toys.
More along the lines of Coppola's "The Conversation", though a larger and immensely more sophisticated surveillance effort than the simple hidden microphones and tape recorders of that movie, than "Enemy of the State," which was premised on misuse of the government's surveillance capabilities.

[polynomial]

21. America the Grand Old Party of Corruption

Does a tap dance on Americans, profiteering at every turn, all while the Democratic Party on the sideline gasp isn't that horrible. But vote for the Democratic person to argue about every issue which avoids the real needs of America.

Let’s face it; America at the top end is screwed up. Think about the issue of Mr. Manning releasing secret records to Wiki-leaks. Here, a young man knows as do many Americans that the war in Iraq and Afghanistan is based on lies by the Bush and Cheney administration. Yet Mr. Manning charged with treason, is jailed for making secret records public about a recognized lie completely confused by the media over the years. The media and a legion of public figures should be in jail rather than Manning.

Now Snowden, and worse, huge expected cover ups in secret intelligence collection going on for years, decades, without warrant. Done “AT WILL” in the political and business arena. America did you get that: done “AT WILL”.
Recall business operations in America are an at will principle. Very unfair to our basic rights. Business at will can know what you think what you do and how you spend your money using Meta data file to influence the way you think and especially the way they do business. It is too good to be true, and while done in secret too big to fail!

Then those in the job market wonder why things are so skewed, biased, or the public media is such a public prosecution place using the cable satellite medium to perpetuate profiteering, tyranny, all while suppressing the real needs of society.